March 28, 2024

Late start

School districts plan for late school start date

Iowa schools will no longer be able to start classes before Aug. 31, starting the 2015-16 school year, according to a letter written by Iowa Department of Education Director Brad Buck Dec. 12.

“From what I’ve been told, Gov. (Terry) Branstad feels really strongly about Iowa tourism and, of course, the Iowa State Fair is a large part of the tourism in our state,” said Steve McDermott, superintendent of Creston and Prescott community school districts. “He had become frustrated with schools starting earlier and earlier in August.”

The directive, outlined in Buck’s letter, does not allow for automatically-approved, early-start waivers.

“In the past, we’ve tried to stay off of the (Iowa) State Fair, and felt like, because local folks are involved over there, we tried to respect that,” McDermott said. “Of course, with that new start date, it will significantly alter how we plan our calendar.”

Change

“What our priority is is learning, student learning, so how we fit this together and make the calendar work and still make sure we’re maintaining effective instruction and learning time for students, that’s what we’ll tackle over the next few months,” McDermott said.n

According to Buck’s letter, “the director or director’s designee will only consider a school or school district’s request for a waiver of the school start date if the school or school district has adequately demonstrated that starting on or after the earliest start date specified would have a significant negative educational impact.”

The letter cites “numerous complaints from parents and other community members alike” as one of the main reasons the directive to not automatically approve early start waivers was put in place.

“For us here in Creston, if we do not apply and receive the waiver, that ultimately will push our school start week two weeks later,” McDermott said.

Creston Community School District started the 2014-15 school year Aug. 20.

Buck’s letter outlined the school start date criteria as “school shall begin no sooner than a day during the calendar week in which the first day of September falls. ... If the first day falls on a Sunday, school may begin on a day during the calendar week which immediately precedes the first day of September.”

McDermott said, since Sept. 1, 2015, falls on a Tuesday, the local school start date would be Sept. 2, 2015.

“In general, I was kind of surprised when it did come out because it was kind of out of the blue,” said Karleen Stephens, Diagonal Community Schools superintendent. “I know the start date plays a portion. I just wish we were a little more focused on what we need as far as support of teaching, financial support and teacher training. I just think it can be a distracting issue.”

Athletics

One issue McDermott mentioned had to do with athletic association scheduling.

“Iowa athletic unions have allowed camps and those first practices in the fall to start early,” McDermott said. “Some students are all coming to school every day for several hours, and I know some schools feel like if students are already coming to school, then maybe we should be already in session for the rest of the student body.”

For example, sports seasons approved for the 2014-15 school year included fall and spring golf, track and football. Practices began during the week of Aug. 11 for fall golf, cross country and football, and the first legal playing dates for those was Aug. 14, Aug. 25 and Aug. 28, respectively. If the 2015-16 sports seasons are similar to this school year’s, then those three sports will all have a game or meet before the first day of school.

On the other end of things, baseball practice is to begin May 4 for the 2014-15 school year. The first legal playing date is May 25. If the 2015-16 sports seasons are similar, baseball games will begin before the last day of school.

“I feel like, in a sense, this is the state fair versus the athletic associations, and Iowa schools have gotten caught in the middle,” McDermott said.

Other impacts

The semester schedule at schools might change with the new directive. McDermott said the first semester currently ends the week after the winter break. If Creston schools do start later the next school year, the first semester may not end until three weeks after the winter holiday.

There is also the consideration of snow and heat days.

“We have some excess hours, so we have a little bit of wiggle room,” Stephens said. “You can’t predict that (weather) at all. We don’t have that much wiggle room to miss six or eight days, but it won’t be that much later.”

The cost for cooling a building is higher than heating one. Stephens said Diagonal schools are more likely to be let out early for a heat advisory than a snow day.

But, one thing both Stephens and McDermott agree on is the lack of flexibility imposed on school districts because of this directive.

“We’ll do what we need to, but the governor’s office and the Department of Education always likes to promote local control, and that school boards control school districts, that they make the majority of the decisions,” Stephens said. “But, that’s becoming less and less.”

McDermott also said the loss of flexibility in calendar scheduling takes away from local control.

“Setting a rigid start date is going in the opposite direction, and takes away flexibility from local school districts,” McDermott said. “And, more important than the start date itself, that really flies in the face of local control of school districts.”

Still, there is a lot of information that hasn’t been released yet, such as what school administrators need to do to obtain a waiver.